Backgrounds and image planes

Note: This topic describes ways to change the background in a rendered scene. For information on changing the background color of the viewport while you work, see Change the view panel background color.

Typically you render the objects in a scene against a black background and composite the rendered images later with an appropriate background using compositing software. However, you can insert a background:

• to avoid having to model background objects or scenery, but want them represented two dimensionally in your scene (especially if you don’t have access to compositing software).
• as a temporary reference (especially for rotoscoping or motion matching) for modeling or animating objects in the scene.

Note: When you create a background in Maya, you create it for a specific camera. When you render a scene from that camera, the background is included in the rendered image. If you render the scene from a different camera, the background is not included. For more information on cameras, see Maya camera types.

Color backgrounds

A color background floods the background of the rendered scene with a solid color (for example, black, white, or red).

To create a basic color background for the current camera

1. Select View > Camera Attribute Editor from the panel menus.
2. In the Attribute Editor, under the Environment section, set the Background Color attribute.

To remove the color background, set the Background Color back to black.

Texture backgrounds

A texture background uses a 2D, 3D, or environment texture on an image plane to simulate a 3D background, or environment.

To create a texture background

1. Select View > Camera Attribute Editor from the panel menus.
2. In the Attribute Editor, under the Environment section, click the Create button to the right of the Image Plane attribute.

   This creates an image plane and connects it to the camera.

3. Set the Type attribute for the image plane to Texture.
4. Click the texture icon next to the Texture attribute.
5. In the Create Render Node window that appears, select the texture you want to use as a background (for example, an Environment Texture).

   This connects the texture to the image plane.

Image file or movie backgrounds

In addition to texture backgrounds, image planes also let you use an image file, a series of image files, or a movie as a background. Refer to the Image planes section for more topics.

Related topics

• Change the view panel background color